Material Characterization of the Pavement Structure Using FWDT, a Non-Destructive Testing Technique

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Pavement structures reach performance limits when there are multiple deteriorations caused by repeatedvehicle loading and environmental effects. Therefore acquiring detailed information about the state of thepavement structures is an important element in rehabilitation planning of sections showing significant damage.Non-Destructive-Testing (NDT) Methods have been broadly used for structural health monitoring and low-costassessment in transportation. Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) is one of the most popular NDT techniquesin characterisation of the mechanical properties of the pavement structure. The FWD test measures the surfacedeflections caused by dropping a known mass from a specific height. The presence of moisture in the pavementstructure can significantly affect the performance of the pavement. Another important issue to the pavementmaintenance is the seasonal factor in cold regions. The mechanical properties of the layers constituting themultilayered flexible pavement system can be determined by using a back-calculation algorithm based onacquired surface displacement data. The current practical state-of-the-art of this method is limited to thequasi-static inversion of the maximum measured deflections. However, this approach does not take advantageof the additional information contained in the stress wave time histories such as damping, moisture content,and the effect of porous structure. The accuracy of determining the mechanical properties of the layers wouldalso improve by using a comprehensive dynamic analysis rather than a quasi-static analysis. The objective ofthe proposed research is to develop an algorithm for the material characterization of the pavement structurethrough a least square-based inversion technique.FPrimeC Solutions specializes in the design and development of innovative Non-Destructive Testingequipment and Structural Health Monitoring Systems for testing materials and structures. FPrimeC is interestedin developing an innovative algorithm to achieve more accurate and more reliable information using FWD toevaluate the material properties of the pavement structure.